Search Search. It was the promise of education in Addis Ababa that led year-old Embet to take the fateful decision to leave home. She slept on a mattress in the living room, was barely fed and suffered abuse at the hands of her employers. After two months living with the family, Embet fled — walking the streets of Addis Ababa until she was found and taken to the local police station. She is one of thousands of girls from all over Ethiopia who are trafficked to Addis Ababa to work in domestic service, some ending up in conditions comparable to slavery.
More than , Ethiopians are estimated to be trapped in slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index by human rights group Walk Free Foundation. It is a trade driven by poverty. Wages in the cities are higher than in rural areas, sometimes as much as double. Though Embet dreamt of a good education in Addis Ababa, her family — a mother and stepfather, who works as a farmer, as well as four brothers and three sisters — wanted her to find employment.
Before being sent to the capital she spent two months working for another family in a town nearer her home in Amhara, where she was babysitter to a two-year-old boy.
But the work was hard and she missed her school, so she ran away and returned to her family, only to be sent to Addis Ababa when it became clear that her parents could not afford to look after her. Under Ethiopian law, it is illegal for a child below the age of 14 years to be engaged in wage labour. But laws against child labour, especially domestic service, are rarely enforced.
Whereas most of the street boys that Retrak rescues are runaways who come to Addis Ababa voluntarily, girls are more often victims of human trafficking. Parents pay them to take their children to Addis Ababa and find them employment. See all news. May 17, Each year more than 20, Ethiopian children - some as young as 10 - are sold by their parents, according to a children's charity.
